Double Bind: Literary, Imitation, and Anthropological Anthology

Author: [French] René Girard
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: René Girard is one of the most talented, ambitious, and thought-provoking thinkers of our time. He craves debate, is passionate, and is unwavering—a demolisher of idols who engages without hesitation with figures such as Freud, Lévi-Strauss, Deleuze, and Lacan. Since Yan Fu translated Western legal and political texts in the late Qing Dynasty to the 1940s of this century, the discerning scholars in the Chinese academic world have deeply felt that encountering Western learning was an unprecedentedly significant event in the history of Chinese thought. They have diligently sought the essence of Western learning, selecting and translating classic works based on their personal talents and interests, giving rise to a generation of outstanding translators. It is understandable that at that time, the academic community's understanding of Western intellectual traditions was still in its infancy, and the selection of Western classics was inevitably somewhat arbitrary. In the late 1950s, the government of the newly established People's Republic of China standardized the translation of Western classics, compiled the drafts left over from the 1940s, and formulated new topic plans. Over the decades, through inch-by-inch accumulation, by the mid-1980s, a comprehensive and well-structured "Chinese Translation of World Academic Classics" system had taken shape. Although the contributions of opening the door for later generations are inestimable, the design of this classic system was still constrained by the dogmatism of the academic community at the time.
"Thought does not extend beyond the two aspects of principle and system" (as Kang Youwei put it). Western classics that deal with principle and system have not all been translated into Chinese, though the actual number is not few.